Her father William Osburn was a wine and spirits merchant but his passion was for Egyptology, writing books and social reform.

It is likely that, like so many other educated socially aware women, she visited the famous Deaconess Training Hospital at Kaiserswerth in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Rather, Lucy Osburn had long alienated her family by her conversion to High Church Anglicanism, a creed fiercely opposed by her Evangelical father.

The training offered by the Nightingale School took a year though Lucy missed four months largely through illness.

Lucy Osburn and five other St Thomas' trained nurses, including Haldane Turriff, arrived in Sydney on 5 March 1868.

Within a week of her arrival she was called upon to provide nurses to care for the Duke of Edinburgh following an attempt on his life.

[6] Her efforts were soon obstructed by her lack of management and nursing experience, internal hospital politics, the opposition of the powerful surgeon Alfred Roberts, poor buildings, vermin problems and a series of scandals.

Despite such concerns, the Commission concluded that Lucy Osburn had vastly improved patient care at the Infirmary.